Bay Area voters braced the rain to make their way to the polls and cast their vote on Election Day.
For many, voting is deeply personal. Some people are motivated by national issues while others are driven by the local races and measures such as the mayor's race in Santa Clara.
Resident Divya Empranthiri said nothing was goin to stop her from voting at the polls for the first time.
"I was really excited to come out and actually cast my ballot in person," she said.
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"I think abortion rights are really important, so seeing that on the ballot was really important to me," she added.
The rain pummeled voters going in and out of the vote center for much of the day. Others chose to only drop their mail-in ballot.
"I'm hoping it's not keeping people away from the polls," said resident Daniel Zafer-Joyce, "but I have the vote-by-mail permanent set up so I can always just drop off my ballot which is pretty easy."
The bad weather however, can affect voter turnout.
Past studies have found that for every inch of rainfall, voter turnout can drop by one percent.
In other states, one inch of snow drops it by half a percent.
Dartmouth Professor Yusaku Horiuchi has researched bad weather and voting, and said historically, it tended to favor Republicans over Democrats.
"The idea is interesting," he said. "When the weather is bad, people tend to be more pessimistic or conservative so they may change the vote choice from Democrat to Republican," he explained, "but that doesn't mean that the rain dramatically changes who gets elected."
